GROCERY STORE AND SUPERMARKETS.
I spent the better part of 20 years in the grocery store industry, started out as a overnight stockman, work my way up to assistant manager to co-manger and ended up as a store manager.
Over the years I watched this industry changed, and not for the good, with the beginning of the Wal-Mart supercenters to the discount stores like Sam's and Costco. Competition is very tough in the grocery store industry, with very little profits.
Around 2009, I made a life changing decision to change careers. I had witnessed the grocery industry take a turn for the worst and felt that I could no longer be a part of it. Now I am still in retail, just not food retail. I will tell you a few things that everyone should know about the grocery industry.
labor cuts
With the invention of the super-centers, profits have been stretched, it is very difficult for a traditional grocery store to compete. So naturally the first thing that gets trimmed is wage cost. Now before I get into this you need to understand that I think this a huge issue that will only get worse, I also do not think that this stems from the local management but from corporate management. See people want to do good, but when you make it hard for them, then they will tend to take short cuts. And when shortcuts are done, then this is where the danger comes in. Sanitation is always the first thing that gets put aside when it comes to labor cuts.
Fresh meat.
Most traditional grocery store's still cut their own meat. With beef and pork being the 2 that are mostly cut in house. They are processed with a saw similar to this one.
Now with that being said, this saw cuts both beef and pork and should be completely broken down and sanitized after cutting beef and before cutting pork. Now this takes time, a lot more than you think. It is a process to completely sanitize this equipment. Well if you only have one person back there cutting meat, is he or she taking the time to sanitize the equipment after each product is being cut, the answer is probably not. Remember they just got the labor cut and still have to produce the same amount of work just with less people.
ground beef
Same thing applies here the grinder is supposed to be sanitized after each grinding. Never mind the fact that most ground beef is made from the trimmings of everything that has been processed for that day. So if proper sanitation was not done then there is a good chance of cross contamination. I DO NOT EAT GROUND BEEF ANYMORE.
Frozen foods.
Now we have all seen it, stockman will have a whole pallet of frozen food out on the aisle stocking it, or maybe one of those large carts that is full of frozen food. Now that pallet of frozen food will take the average stockman more than 2 hours to work. That's right it's thawing out before he can get it stocked. Now frozen food is not designed to go from the frozen state to the thawed state and then refrozen.
Deli sliced meats
Let me just say, don't. Most state laws require an open deli meat package to be used with 10 days of opening. Now think about that just for a second, 10 days. That would be like you have a package of ham lunch meat opened and leaving it in your fridge for 10 days and then eat it. Never mind the fact that you have to take the deli for their word that they dated correctly. This is an area that I would recommend staying away from. Also ask yourself, when was the last time that slicer was sanitized.
Shopping carts or buggies.
This is the dirtiest thing possible, these carts and buggies get used for everything. In my 20 years not one time did I ever witness anyone or any company cleaning and sanitizing their shopping carts, yeah the same carts that your young children sit in, the same carts you put your food in, and the same cart that you put your hands on and push around while you are shopping.
Please understand that these are things that I have witnessed, this may not be the case for every grocery store chain.
Images provided by google
Your food may not be as good as you think it is.
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Hey, don't forget to upvote
Just make sure you've got your colloidal silver on hand to wash anything you buy in a supermarket. Talk about a public petrie dish.
Nice one Ray
Yeah its pretty bad.
We don't buy meat in grocery stores. Only from a local butcher we know personally and have seen the back of the shop. Ground meat, we buy roasts and grind them ourselves. Chicken and rabbits we raise here. Vegetables and most fruit we grow on the homestead. Very little is bought in a superstore. Nothing processed is served in our house and were are healthier for it. Upvoted and resteemed.
Hey smart one right here☝️i bet you are healthier for it. I have seen some things that would just make you say, what are you doing. Thanks for the resteem, very cool.
You're welcome.
This is a great breakdown of the grocery store business model. Now that Amazon has purchased whole foods I think there's going to be a shake up in the business model moving forward. And how many years before we have drones delivering our groceries?
It is probably a lot closer than we think. Thanks for the visit.
Supposedly since Amazon purchased whole foods, the Whole Foods prices were supposed to go down. It still seems like a whole paycheck is running the show.
I've witnessed some of my local grocery stores closing unfortunately. Not only grocery stores but all kinds of retail stores. Online shopping is to blame for that. That's a sensitive subject for some people but it's the way times are changing. I've also thought about shopping carts being so filthy. There's something else that is pretty loaded up with schmegma and that's gas pumps! Imagine how many meat beaters grab that big ol handle every day! I didn't used to think much about that kind of stuff but since I've got a weak immune system now, I have to think about it all the time.
Ah man, you just had to talk about gas pumps, what about a restaurant menu? Thanks for the visit.
Would any store survive if they spent the dollars required to sanitize everything as they should? Not likely! Oh, I hear silver is used frequently in medicine.
No they wouldn't, and it is very disappointing and sad at the same time, thanks for the visit.
This is definitely interesting stuff. I started out working the meat department of the butcher shop. I had to clean all the equipment every single night it was quite nasty of course and it would take 2-3 hours. I'm surprised that now the butchers just "clean up" when there done for the day in much less time, certainly makes me nervous, but they also process much less fresh meat every day as so much of this is now prepackaged.
I bet you have seen some things. But you are right more and more meat is coming in prepackaged, which actually makes it worse for me, meat should habe a 10 day shelf life. Thanks buddy for all your work on the steemit coin, can't wait to feel it.
Very nice info my friend thank you for sharing Up&Resteem
Very informative. Ed's answer:
Be your own store! My last ground beef purchase was cut off the animal and ground by me, about 65 pounds worth. I get lamb meat a few times a year from my brother just for helping out on the farm. And veggies, I've had as much as 1500 tomatoes, piles of carrots, peas, beans etc just from my small city garden.
There are plenty of options available if you want to step out of the line full of lemmings...
Another smart one here☝️ thanks Ed.
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